Welcome

Welcome to Summer University (SUN), a very special postgraduate study-abroad program within Central European University (CEU).

CEU is a graduate-level research-intensive university specializing in the social sciences, humanities, public policy, and management. Located in Budapest, CEU is accredited in both the United States and Hungary. Its mission is to promote academic excellence, state-of-the-art research, and civic engagement in order to contribute to the development of open societies in Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and other emerging democracies worldwide.

While CEU's summer program is relatively young, it has evolved dynamically, emerging over the past 16 years as one of the most important programs for young social-science and humanities scholars in the region and beyond. SUN is highly international, with students from over 90 countries and faculty members from over 30 countries. With such a diverse student body, CEU offers a rare university environment in which no single nationality predominates and both academic and social activities involve a richly dense cross-section of nationalities.

SUN is a meeting place for academics and professionals eager to look beyond their disciplinary boundaries. Students are exposed to an immense diversity of countries, disciplines, and perspectives, and have the opportunity to discuss issues openly in an atmosphere of tolerance and intellectual curiosity. While most of our participants are PhD students, we attract many others as well. These include postdoctoral fellows, junior researchers and other junior faculty; plus representatives of national and international organizations and ministries.

SUN faculty teams consist of CEU professors and leading scholars and experts from universities worldwide. Our instructors work collaboratively with students on a variety of complex social and scientific themes, applying both traditional and nontraditional methods.

I encourage you to examine our offerings in more detail on this website, and very much hope that we will be able to welcome you to CEU next summer.